Giovanni Franchi
The threewomen
who all walked
In
the same dress
And it had falling ferns on it
Skipped parallel
To the progress
Of Giovanni Franchi
Giovanni FranchiвАЩs wrists flicked
Flickeringly as he flacked them
His wrists explained things
Infectiously
by way of his adolescence
His adolescence was all there was of him
Whatever was left was rather awkward
His adolescence tuned to the tops of trees
Descended to the fallacious nobility
Of his first pair of trousers
They were tubular
flapped friezily
The colour of coppered mustard
What matter
Were they not the first
No others could ever be the first again
The ferns on the flounces of the threewomen
Began fading as she thought of it
Tea-table problems for insane asylums
Are démodé
Démodé
Allow us to rely on our instincts
The threewomen was composed of three instincts
Each sniffing divergently directed draughts
The first instinct
first again
may
renascent gods save us from the enigmatic
penetralia of Firstness
Was to be faithful to a man
first
The second
to be loyal to herself first
She would have to find which self first
The third which might as well have been first
Was to find out
how many toes
the
philosopher Giovanni Bapini had
first
Giovanni Franchi hooligan-faced and latin-born
You imagine what he looked like
Looked it
as nearly as he could
as the
philosopher looked
His articulations were excellent
Still
where Giovanni Bapini was cymophanous
Giovanni Franchi was merely pale
His acolytian sincerity
The sensitive down among his freckles
Fell in with the patriotic souls of flags
Red white and green flags
filliping piazzas
When the вАЬNational IdeaвАЭ arrived on the Milan Express
He scuttled winsomely
To its distribution from a puffer
For the declaration of War
Continually cutting off an angle from PaszkowskiвАЩs
Through plate-glass swingings
To look as busy bodily
As the philosopherвАЩs brain was
As Giovanni Bapini importuned mobs
From monumental gums
To the sparky detritus
From the hurried cigarette
Of his disciple
Whose papa and mama kept a trattoria
Audaciously squatting right opposite the Pitti Palace
The Pitti Palace however stolid
could hardly help noticing
Being an aristocrat it went on looking
As plainly piled up as ever
The Pitti Palace has never been known to mention the trattoria
Or mention Giovanni Franchi
Sitting in it
At a book
It could not see from that distance
Giovanni watching the munchers supporting his parents
With an eye
On assuring himself
Of their sufficient impression
By erudition
He was so young
That explains so much
No book ever explained what to be young is
But they look so much more important for that
Giovanni was in continuous exstacy
Induced by the imposing look of them
When Giovanni Bapini spoke of them
He could not tell
How completely more precious
Would be such knowledge
As how many toes the philosopher Giovanni Bapini had
Now the threewomen
For pityвАЩs sake
Let us think of her as she
to save time
Seeing the minor Giovanni
Sitting at the major GiovanniвАЩs feet
Made sure he must be counting his toes
All to the contrary
he was picking the philosopherвАЩs brains
Happy in the security that when he had done
He would still be youthful enough to sort out his own
He listened at the elderвАЩs lips
That taught him of earthquakes and women
Of womenвБ†вЄївБ†вЄївБ†вЄї
His manners were abominable
He would kill a woman
Quite inconspicuously it is true
And neglect to attend her funeral
I mean the older man
And what he told
Giovanni Franchi
About these pernicious persons
Was so extremely good for him
It entirely spoilt his first love-affair
To such an extent
it never came off
We have read of
Trattoria
meaning eating house.
Piazzas
or squares
The Pitti Palace
enormous
And PaszkowskiвАЩs
for beer
All are in Firenze
Firenze is Florence
Some think it is a woman with flowers in her hair
But no
it is a city with stones on the streets
Giovanni Bapini often said
Everybody in Firenze knows me
And everybody did
ExceptingвБ†вАФThat is
she didnвАЩt
She never knew what he was
Or how he was himself
Yet she uniquely was the one
To speculate
upon the number of his toes
The days growing longer
Fulfilling her of curiosity
She made a mothвАЩs-net
Of metaphor and miracles
And on the incandescent breath of civilizations
She chased by moon-and-morn light
PhilosopherвАЩs toes
As virginal
as had he never worn them
Clear of вАЬwhite marks mean moneyвАЭ
All quicks and cores
They fluttered to her fantasy
Fell into her lap
While she gathered her ferny flounces about them
They inappropriately passed
But Giovanni Franchi was there
He almost winked it at her
That he was there
His eyes were intrepid with phantom secrets
The Philosopher had flung to him
And as she tripped by him
She guessed
these all
All
but the number of those toes
She made diurnal pilgrimage
To the trattoria
To eat
Trout
that might have been trained for circuses
If minarets
grew in miniature whirlpools
And mayonnaise
that helped her to forget
That what is underneath
need never matter
She put all minor riddles out of her
Such as
What was the under-cover of FranchiвАЩs book
Telling to the plaid pattern of the table-cloth
Too shy to interrogate
She sent ambassadors
To the disciple
They returned
Oh rats
Quite manifest
that Giovanni Franchi
Some semieffigy
Damned by scholiums
Knew no more
how many toesвБ†вАФ
Than
Giovanni Bapini knew himself